DAC 'Scam' Vid

The most important factor for buying a dac is buying one which price will be commensurate with the others gear pieces value...

If not, evaluating a few thousand  bucks dac in a low cost system as mine makes no sense...

There is good dac at all price level... Thanks to an improving technology...

And evaluating costlier dac in a living room or in a showroom means nothing...

Acoustics control must exist for any evaluation...

And  if the design of a dac and  not only his chip matter,  the way we install it in our own system matter as much...

Some people  don’t know what they are talking about. One dac chip just starts the building process many other parts equal the sum .

Power supplies  ,filtering ,buffers there are many many things that go into every brand dacs and all are different especially over $1k that is something I would expect on ASR review . They can enjoy their $700 topping dac.

As anyone tried the McIntosh DAC? And if so how does it compare to other DACs?

+1 @smodtactical 

+1 @mahgister 

I heard a SIGNIFICANT difference with each of my moves.

1917: iPhone/Pure DAC 

2019: Devialet 400

2023: Vinnie Rossi L2S preamp with DAC

2024: Playback Designs MPD-8

The PURE was not good enough for background music. The Devialet was okay. The VR showed me that digital could be eminently listenable. The PD blew me away. The latter uses an FPGA, but also incorporates a superb analog preamp section along with three separate power supplies, one for each digital channel and one for the analog section.

It has pretty much replaced my need (but not desire) for analog. And Maghister is correct about the impact of the listening environment. Without room treatment, what you hear is not music but a smear of notes. Might be a very nice smear, but a smear nonetheless.

That's what a lot of these other Audiogon members love. Snake oil. This DAC thing isn't new,  but add it to the list of things that are killing this hobby.